The Catalyst
by RavenRose8
Summary: Blake is suffering from nightmares about her time in the White Fang. What happens when one night Ruby hears her suffering from them and decides to try and help her friend. This catalyst sends Blake on the path of battling her old demons. (One-shot. Slight hints of Ruby x Blake/Black Rose.)


_"When we feel weak, we drop our heads on the shoulders of others. Don't get mad when someone does that. Be honoured. For that person trusted you enough to, even if subtly, ask you for help."_

 _― Lori Goodwin_

 **The Catalyst-**

It all started on one evening when Ruby was doing her normal late night studying under her covers. A torch on over her books so she could see and her covers over her head so she didn't disturb the others in the room.

Hearing it again Ruby heard one of the women in her room was whimpering in their sleep. Poking her head from under the covers to discover where it was coming from.

Hearing it again Ruby spotted Blake, curled up in her bed tightly and the sound coming from her. Worried Ruby silently climbed down from her bed and went over to Blake's.

Confirming that it was indeed coming from Blake, who had a thin layer of sweat over her body and whimpering softly with her face contort in pain.

Seeing this and realising that Blake was locked in a nightmare Ruby gently tried to wake her up by pushing her shoulder and saying, "Blake, it's just a nightmare. It can't hurt you, wake up." Ruby said softly but to no avail.

Remembering back to what her sister and mother would do for her when she had a bad nightmare when she was younger Ruby quietly and gently climbed into the bed, pulling Blake into a hug.

Whispering comforting words to the woman while gently rubbing her head, and her cat ears at the same time. Slowly Blake seemed to calm down but instead of curling in on herself she latched onto Ruby.

Not tightly but enough that Ruby couldn't get free without waking the woman up. Ruby kept up her actions although it seemed Blake had calmed down. She kept it up until she fell asleep herself, wrapped in Blake's arms.

The next morning, as Ruby was the one to wake up before anyone else she found that Blake's grip had weakened enough that she could slip out before the Faunus woke up.

Clearing away the books on her bed she grabbed her clothes to get ready for the day, once she had finished she came out to find Blake wide awake, sitting on her bed with a book open as they still had plenty of time before first lesson.

"Morning Blake, sleep well?" Ruby asked politely.

"Good morning Ruby, I did thank you. How about you?" Blake replied.

"Fine, thank you." Ruby said as she went about finishing up getting dressed for the day, no longer caring about the others in the room seeing her in her underwear anymore.

Blake nodded in response as she herself got up, grabbing her clothes and going to the bathroom. Knowing that Ruby had finished up in there as this was their normal morning routines.

Since waking up Blake was feeling a little off, last night about halfway through her normal nightmares of her time spent in the White Fang and what she had done during her time in the organisation.

But when she woke up that morning she was unusually refreshed and feeling like she actually got a decent night's sleep for a change, unsure why her nightmares suddenly stopped though she continued the day as normal, although she noticed a faint smell of roses in her bed that morning.

Entering the bathroom she smelt the same rose smell again, working it out to be Ruby's perfume that she used. Confused Blake put it down to maybe Ruby sitting on her bed the day before or something along a similar lines.

Meanwhile outside Ruby had just finished getting ready and was looking at the bathroom door where Blake had disappeared behind, unsure what to make of Blake's attitude as she pretended that everything was fine.

Ruby didn't know what happened last night exactly but knew something was troubling Blake, but felt that she shouldn't push the woman in case it went badly. So instead Ruby was happy to stay quiet unless Blake came to her, or anyone else about it.

She knew she couldn't ask her sister if Blake mentioned anything in case she hadn't, which would only start Yang getting worried and her sister didn't have the same type of discretion that she did.

The rest of the day continued on as normal and it wasn't until the evening where it happened again. As was normal Ruby was awake for much longer than anyone else, wanting to study more.

Even though she got into the school on combat skill she needed to make sure she kept up with her other studies so her sleep schedule was a little off and weird, but she didn't let it bother her too much.

Once more as she was in the middle of her studying the history of the Faunus Rebellion she heard the whimpering again, discovering Blake in the same condition as the night before it was an easy decision to make as Ruby silently climbed out of her bed and into Blake's bed.

This continued for well over a month, with Ruby sleeping in Blake's bed each evening upon hearing the woman's quiet cries. Throughout this time Ruby held her silence on the issue, trusting Blake to come to her about it.

But a month of silence from the woman on the issue started to worry Ruby more as there seemed to be no sign of it stopping, or of Blake getting better.

So deciding to take a more direct approach with Blake she decided to wait until the weekend, where she knew Yang and Weiss were going into the town to pick up some things and make a day out of it, while Blake didn't want to go nor did Ruby.

So with everyone else having gone out for the day Ruby was on her bed studying, or at least looked like she was but instead on her scroll looking up something else.

While Blake herself was reading one of her books on her bed, the pair enjoying the peaceful quiet they had for the day.

"Blake, can I talk to you about something?" Ruby asked suddenly.

"What is it Ruby?" Blake asked.

Blake had been getting suspicious for a while now, her nightmares had all but receded in the recent month but she couldn't work out why, every morning she woke up with the smell of roses in her bed and a warm spot next to her, but that was it.

She suspected Ruby was sharing a bed with her or crawling into her bed while she was asleep, but she didn't know why the girl had done that, nor did she really care looking back on it as her nightmares seemed to stop with her there.

Maybe now she'd be able to get some answers as Ruby waited for no one else to be around when they started speaking so it must be something she didn't want the others to know.

"Are you alright? I mean, is there anything bothering you at all?" Ruby asked, rather awkwardly as she tried to get the right words.

"Everything's fine Ruby." Blake replied with her normal response.

"Are you sure? You know if there's anything wrong I'll always listen. I'm your friend, if somethings wrong than I want to help you and make sure you know that I'll always be here if you want to talk." Ruby said, jumping down from her bed to sit on Weiss' and face Blake at eye level.

Blake picked up how Ruby used the term friend instead of team leader and felt something warm in her heart before she ignored the feeling and said, "I'm fine, is something wrong with you?" Blake asked.

"No, I just wanted to make sure that you know I'm here for you, no matter what." Ruby replied, trying to avoid the topic now as she realised Blake didn't want to speak about it.

Seeing this Blake immediately changed what she was going to say, as she replied, "Well now that you mention it. There is something I wanted to ask you." Blake said.

And seeing Ruby perk up at this made Blake want to say more, "Well each morning I keep waking up with a warm spot in my bed next to me and also the smell of roses….The same smell as your perfume. Why's that?" Blake asked, teasing the other girl slightly while asking an honest question.

Ruby seemed to blush while at the same time losing some of the colour in her face, "Ah, well you see…um." Ruby struggled to say, finding it hard to find the right words.

"You can tell me Ruby, I don't mind. Honestly it's been some of the best sleep I've had for a while but I just wanted to know why you've been doing it." Blake said gently, realising she caught the girl out.

"I um…I stay up late at night studying and well I uh heard you whimper." Ruby replied awkwardly.

Blake froze up, not sure if she heard Ruby correctly and asked, "Whimpered?" She asked.

"Uh, yeah I heard you whimpering and well, you'd curled in on yourself and were covered in sweat. I tried to wake you but couldn't, I was unsure what to do so I just did what my mother and Yang used to do for me. I hugged you and stroked your hair. You calmed down and well fell asleep." Ruby answered, looking away nervously.

Blake was unsure what to say back, still realising the fact that she actually whimpered and alerted someone else to her struggles, having not wanted to let anyone know.

"Who else knows?" Blake found herself asking.

"No one. Everyone else is normally asleep, so I'm the only one who's heard and I haven't told anyone." Ruby answered quickly, seeing how worried Blake looked.

Only nodding her head Blake tried to take in everything she'd been told, her nightmares were worrying Ruby. That was much was clear with how the girl spoke about it, but also she tried to understand why she felt so relaxed with Ruby hugging her while she was asleep.

"I'll stop doing, I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable. It's just I don't like seeing you, or anyone in pain. But I'll stop doing it. Sorry." Ruby said, apologetic over touching the woman when she didn't give her permission to.

"It's fine." Blake said instantly, stopping Ruby who seemed upset about it. "I mean, I don't mind you hugging me, or uh sleeping with me…I mean sharing my bed and uh hugging me." Blake said, trying to calm Ruby down and relax her but was being more awkward than anything else.

"Really?" Ruby said, brightening up.

"Yeah, really. It's um…comforting." Blake replied, struggling to find the right word.

"If you're sure, if you're uncomfortable I'll stop." Ruby said, making sure Blake was ok with it all.

"No! I mean its fine, I've gotten better sleep since you've started doing it." Blake answered.

Ruby nodded and the two sat in awkward silence as neither woman could think of anything to say before Ruby broke the silence.

"Can I ask what you're nightmares are about?" Ruby asked gently.

"Can you?." Blake teased back gently before she sighed.

Smiling in response Ruby said instead, "Could you tell me what you're nightmares are about?" Ruby asked, but quickly added, "You don't have to if you don't want to. But I hear talking about it helps people." Ruby said.

"Its fine, I guess talking about it might help." Blake said, sitting up further before saying, "They're about my time in the White Fang. You've got to understand Ruby, what I did wasn't right but at the time I thought it was." Blake explained.

"I didn't kill anyone, but I hurt a lot of people and stood by as others killed people." Blake said mournful, "They're faces haunt my dreams, and I can't get rid of them." Blake said, sounding upset.

Ruby didn't reply verbally as she instead got up and moved to hug Blake. Pulling her into a soft embrace, "There's nothing you can change about the past, but you can change things in the future by your actions today. Live in memory of those people to do better." Ruby said calmly, hugging the taller woman into her chest as she stroked her hair as well.

Blake leant into the embrace as she took in the surprising words coming from Ruby, which she didn't expect.

"If you ever need to talk, I'm here for you as is Yang and Weiss I'm sure." Ruby told Blake as she started to pull away from the embrace.

Blake however held on, stating. "Please don't let go…I mean, can we stay like this a little longer?" Blake requested shyly.

Ruby only smiled in return as she said, "Of course we can." Pulling Blake close once more.

When Weiss and Yang returned later that evening they came back to their room to see Ruby and Blake, cuddled together on Blake's bed sleeping peacefully.

Weiss quickly put her bags down and pulled Yang out of the room before she woke them up, although she knew that the blonde woman was going to tease her sister a lot for that, but for now Weiss let the pair have their rest and time together, in whatever capacity that may be.

 **A/N**

 **So this idea was sent to me this morning by Gorsouul, and I rather liked the idea and pretty much thought up a story this morning while convincing myself I needed to get out of bed. So I worked on it through the morning until I went to work and finished it this evening.**

 **It's my first time doing these two together, and well I hope it was cute and good enough for you all. Also as I'm pretty sure Blake hasn't killed humans in her time in the White Fang that she may have watched others, but it's not so much the trauma she's gotten from the events but rather how she's 'dealing' with it so to speak.**

 **Not much else, except I'm still looking for prompts, be they anything I'll happily discuss them with you and see whether or not I'll give them a go. I've got another one-shot in the works and a few other things I should really do. I've got a couple pieces I'll be uploading today as well so keep an eye out for those.**

 **Anyway that's it from me, thanks for reading and until next time. ^_^**


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